1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to furniture constructions and, more particularly, to knockdown furniture constructions which can be easily assembled and disassembled without requiring the use of either conventional or specially designed tools or hardware.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
There exists a great demand for knockdown furniture which can be easily assembled once it has been transported or shipped from a store or other location to an area in which the furniture is to be used and can be easily disassembled for further transportation or storage. The demand for such furniture is great because, ideally, such furniture can be packaged in containers of sufficiently small size to permit transportation in conventional automobiles of the sedan type and economical transportation via land, sea and air and can be assembled and disassembled by persons with no particular mechanical skills or experience with the construction of furniture.
In the past, attempts to manufacture easily assembled and disassembled furniture, which is commonly referred to as "knockdown" furniture, have unfortunately had the disadvantages of requiring the manipulation of specially designed connectors, necessitating the use of conventional tools such as screwdrivers and wrenches and, many times, specially designed tools, and of requiring more than minimal mechanical skills. A special problem exists with the construction of furniture having horizontal support surfaces, such as tables, desks, shelves and the like, in that such furniture is desirably heavy and sturdy to support weight without collapsing or tipping during use.
Separable fasteners composed of strips of complementary gripping elements, such as hook and loop elements, have recently been utilized in a wide variety of applications including structural installations in the nature of partitions and door catches, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,455,589 to Valiulis, 3,777,435 to Perina and 3,974,548 to Meiel et al; however, such structural installations do not produce the sturdy connection required for a table or like furniture constructions in that there is no support in addition to the face to face mating of the complementary gripping surfaces. U.S. Pat. No. 3,166,031 to Lauber is exemplary of a furniture construction for attaching legs to furniture so that the furniture can be readily knocked down for shipment; however, the furniture construction of the Lauber patent has the disadvantage of not providing the required connection to prevent slipping movement of a table top while also permitting universal use on various configurations and styles of furniture.